Dooley, Mr. (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Irish Americans -- Fiction
"I think so," said Mr. Dooley, "but a man that's been out there
tells me not. He says annywan but an Englishman cud go fr'm wan
end iv th' West to th' other without carryin' a gun, an' that
people that kill each other are not considhered rayspictable in
Tucson anny more thin they wud be in Eysther Bay, but that they
are mostly dhrunk men an' th' like iv that. Th' towns, he says,
is run be fellows that sell ribbons, milk, yeast, spool thread an'
pills an' pull teeth an' argye little foolish law suits, just as
th' towns down here are run, an' th' bad men are more afraid iv
thim thin they are iv each other. He says there are things doin'
out West that niver get into th' dime novels, an' that whin people
lose their lives they do it more often in a saw mill or a smelter
thin in a dance hail. He says so but I don't believe him."
"I suppose," said Mr. Hennessy, "a man iv me peaceable disposition
wud niver get a job."
"Make a repytation," said Mr. Dooley. "Buy a gun."
European Intervention
"Th' question befure th' house is," said Mr. Dooley, "which wan
iv th' Euro-peen powers done mos' f'r us in th' Spanish war."
"I thought they were all again' us," said Mr. Hennessy.
"So did I," said Mr. Dooley, "but I done thim an injustice. I was
crool to thim crowned heads. If it hadn't been f'r some wan power,
an' I can't make out which it was, th' Cubians to-day wud be
opprissed be th' Casteel instead iv th' Beet Sugar Thrust an' th'
Filipinos'd be shot be Mausers instead iv Krag-Jorgensens. Some
wan power sthretched out its hand an' said, 'No. No,' it said,
'thus far but no farther. We will not permit this misguided but
warrum-hearted little people to be crushed be th' ruffyan power
iv Spain,' it said. 'Niver,' it said, 'shall histhry record that
th' United States iv America, nestlin' there in its cosy raypublic
fr'm th' Atlantic to th'Passyfic, was desthroyed an' th' hurtage
iv liberty that they robbed fr'm us wasted because we did not give
thim support,' it says. An' so whin th' future looked darkest,
whin we didn't know whether th' war wud last eight or be prolonged
f'r tin weary, thragic minyits, whin it seemed as though th' Spanish
fleet wud not sink unless shot at, some kindly power was silently
comfortin' us an' sayin' to itsilf: 'I do so hope they'll win, if
they can.' But I don't know which wan it was.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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